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Originally Posted by Schnee
We all know about "Das Boot" - thats said to be the sub movie yardstick - all others are judged against it.
But the Silent Service in WWII had its share of thrills, chills and bravery. How come we have never seen anything in the movies resembling the definitive American sub movie?
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Das Boot is good drama but lousy submarine material. It would lead you to believe that the main character's purpose is to sit there during an attack and look miserable, brooding about impending doom. It would have you believe that there were no evasion strategies at all, you just sat there waiting to be blown to oblivion; that destroyers come from nowhere and their first depth charge is laser guided. There is no approach strategy at all. Suddenly the ships are all arrayed around you except the destroyer that beams down from the Starship Enterprise to kill you. You learn very little about how to run a U-boat from the movie. I recall the book is somewhat better in that regard. But the primary dramatic device of the movie is to conceal information from the viewer which would not be concealed in real life and then use it to shock you with, just like the hokey sudden loud noise startle soundtracks in horror movies. You feel like a fool when they make you jump.
Das Boot is primarily a study of suffering and secondarily about U-boats. I was much less impressed with it when I watched a few weeks ago than I was when I watched it in ignorance 20 years ago. I guess my SH3 and reading experience spoiled the movie for me, revealing its true character as an updated Steppenwolf.
I have not seen "Run Silent, Run Deep" the movie, but have read the series of books. They are a graduate course in the theory and practice of submarine warfare in the Pacific, with plenty of good drama thrown in to keep it all relevent. Potentially, a movie based on any of the three books could be the true definitive sub movie.
The German side cries for someone to portray the German submariner as the non-wussified man he was, confident that he had the bag of tricks to deal with whatever adversity might come his way, realistically knowing that luck may turn against him, but undaunted nonetheless. That was the true character of the German submarine force.
But I agree about hollywood. They can't resist ruining a good story.